Jake McGrew, left, of the white team goes on the attack, trailed by Koby Morrisseau, right, in the Spokane Chiefs’ annual Red and White Game on Aug. 30, 2015 at the Spokane Arena. (Jesse Tinsley / The Spokesman-Review)

Chiefs win shootout at Everett

Riley Woods scored the first and only goal in the shootout and goaltender Jayden Sittler made it stand up as the Spokane Chiefs beat the Western Hockey League’s U.S. Division-leading Silvertips 4-3 on Sunday night in Everett.

The Chiefs hadn’t scored in their last 12 shootout rounds before Woods came through and gave Spokane its first shootout victory of the season in three tries. In stopping all three Everett shots, Sittler picked up his 12th win.

Hudson Elynuik scored his 17th goal off a redirect from Keanu Yamamoto in the second period to cut into a 2-0 lead built by Everett in the first. Woods tied the game with 3:30 left in the second period, deking the goaltender to the ice and putting the puck inside the post.

Everett reclaimed 12 seconds later but Kailer Yamamoto’s team-leading 30th goal 31 seconds into the third period got Spokane a 3-3 tie.

The victory lifted Spokane into a tie with Portland at 47 points for the Western Conference’s final playoff spot.

Spokane is host to Seattle on Tuesday night at 7:05 in a makeup of a postponed game.

Despite being out for the season with a lower-body injury, Spokane Chiefs forward Jake McGrew added to his highlight tape on Saturday against Kootenay.

Mark Miles, the Chiefs’ vice president of operations/sales, approached McGrew during the team’s practice on Friday and asked if he wanted to fill in as a color commentator during the broadcast.

“Why not?” McGrew remembers thinking. “It would be fun to step out of my comfort zone a little bit.”

Miles said it was Patchin’s idea, intended to mix things up.

Leading up to the broadcast, McGrew admitted he was nervous, but said his nerves settled down pretty quickly.

“It’s the game that I know, it’s what I love,” McGrew said. “It just comes to me naturally.”

Missed opportunity

The Chiefs were rested and refined against Kootenay due to the postponement of the game against the Seattle Thunderbirds on Jan. 18.

While Spokane played fresh against the Ice, having six days to rest and practice, the Chiefs missed a chance to take on a conference opponent in the Thunderbirds, who would have played its fourth game in five nights if the game was played as scheduled.

“We missed an opportunity to play a team in our conference tired,” coach Don Nachbaur said. “We played a lot of those games, and we haven’t had a chance to play a lot of tired teams.”

Spokane is aware of how difficult to play four games in five nights, as the Chiefs have done it three times since the Christmas break ended on Dec. 27.

Instead of meeting an exhausted Seattle team, the Thunderbirds will be on two-day rest when they travel to take on the Chiefs at the Arena on Tuesday.

Spokane, which won at Everett on Sunday, will now only have one day of rest.

Ending the line dance

Nachbaur, dealing with injuries and inconsistent play, believes he’s found some stability with his offensive lines.

Against Kootenay, Nachbaur sent out four offensive lines he hopes, barring any injury, he can keep together moving forward.

“We had a lot of injuries and we had to find some chemistry with the guys that we had,” Nachbaur said. “But our lines are put together now with a little bit of thought behind it.”

The Chiefs starting line against Kootenay, consisting of Ethan McIndoe, Hudson Elynuik and Rykr Cole, that can go toe-to-toe with other team’s strength and size.

Nachbaur likes to utilize a line consisting Riley Woods, Jaret Anderson-Dolan and Kailer Yamamoto to overwhelm opponents with its speed.

Against Kootenay, the Chiefs’ four goals scored by forwards were spread out between three different offensive lines.